|
Duh, Joe, I still can’t tell the difference between a “website” and an email or “mail” address. With any luck the way I filled out the boxes above will allow this note to reach you.
I’m delighted that you liked my observations about how your work has changed–enough so to put them on your site. Right up there with being made a captain in the DNR!
I offer the following tip re prep of brookies (or, for that matter, other trout/fish) before cooking. I got this tip from Lew Carlson years ago. Try it to see if you like the results.
After gutting the fish and cleaning the cavity, sprinkle a teaspoon or so (more or less as the size of the fish and experience dictate) of salt over the entire exterior and rub purposefully to remove surface slime, which is sort of dissolved by the salt, turning into an off-white scum that readily washes off. Sometimes I salt/rub a second time. Then rinse the salt/scum off and pat dry.
I’ll mention, too, that the easiest way, and one of the best, to cook a small trout is often neglected in cookbooks because it scarcely qualifies as a “recipe.” After cleaning, salt and pepper the fish liberally, then simply sautee it in butter, being sure to cook with enough heat to brown and crisp the skin, which becomes delicious.
With the thought in mind that some of your readers may have no experience with the glories of trout or fish in general, I’ll mention two other things that they might find useful.
One is to advise against overcooking. The worst thing one can do to a fish is to cook it till it’s dry. Far better to undercook than risk overcooking. If the fish is not very moist around the backbone when opened up, it’s overdone.
The second point has to do with a great way to “open up” and eat a trout, particularly a small one. It is pretty easy to do, but not so simple to explain without tedium, but I will try.
I’ll first explain the process with a fish whose head has been removed (which allows a slightly less anal explanation). Imagine an inexperienced cook who has prepared a trout that now lies on the plate. He stares. How in the hell do you eat the damned thing without getting the mouth and teeth full of bones? Here’s how.
Grab the backbone where the head was removed, lift it slightly and use a knife to begin to separate the backbone from the lower half of the fish (the part still lying on the plate). As soon as you’ve created a gap between flesh and backbone, use the knife to pin the lower half to the plate as you continue to lift/pin down/lift the rest of the fish. The top half, with backbone AND RIB BONES AND PIN BONES still connected to it, will easily separate from the bottom filet. That’s the point, to get a boneless or near-boneless, mouth-ready filet. Then you turn the fish over, start separating the other half from the backebone, and pin down/lift the entire skeketon, backbone ribs pin bones and all, right off the second filet.
Each filet will come off with the anal fin and upper fin still attached, but they are readily visible and easily removed, bones intact, with a knife or fork.
Particularly if the fish is not overdone, you can now easily remove the flesh from the skin to eat. But I usually prefer to cut a cross-section of flesh/skin and eat together.
Obviously, if you start with a fish with head intact, the trick is to work first from the top of the fish, just behind the gill plate, to get the process started with one half. Then flip the fish over and lift the head, pinning down the first half on the plate while the backbone is lifted off. Then flip again to do the second half.
I don’t know if you use this technique or some variation thereof, but with just a little practice, one can quickly create a wonderfully easy-to-eat, boneless fish.
The next time I go to Lawton Creek, I will keep a couple of 10-11″ browns and try your P. 2 recipe, which sounds great.
G
|
